> > i'd be surprised of the use of this word represents "new" anything in > egypt; at least in north india enough non-muslims use it and everyone > uses it as the quintessential expression of philosophical uncertainty > about achieving timely outcomes in a chaotic world.
It's not too different from non-Christians using 'Jesus Christ' when they swear. I think it's just a case of a Westerner noticing something in a foreign country and responding to it in knee-jerk fashion, in this case, with a religious bent rather than a sociological one. If he looked at it from the latter case, what you're saying would be the first interpretation. One uses the prevalent expression of the region without considering whether it is native to one's own usage. -- Sumant Srivathsan sumants.blogspot.com
